INSECTS INJURIOUS TO BEANS AND PEAS 



279 



Life History. The winter is passed in the adult stage, the wee- 

 vils making their appearance in the fields when the peas are in 

 blossom. The eggs are laid singly upon the surface of the pods, 

 attached by a sticky fluid which becomes white when dry. The 

 egg is about one-twentieth of 

 an inch long by one-third that 

 width, of a yellow color, and 

 is shown in Fig. 239. 



Upon hatching, the young 

 larva bores through the pod 

 and into the seed. In this 

 stage the larva has some very 

 small false legs and two plates 

 and six strong spines on the 

 thorax, which aid it in get- 

 ting through the pod. Upon 



entering the seed the skin is FIG. 239. The pea-weevil: a, egg on pod; 

 shed and these legs, plates 6, cross section of opening of larval mine; 



c, young larva and opening on inside of 

 The pod by which it has entered enlarged 



d, d, d, eggs on pod, slightly enlarged; 

 f, leg of larva; g, prothoracic spurious 

 processes more enlarged. (After Chit- 

 tenden, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



and spines are lost, 

 larva feeds upon the seed, 

 growing rapidly. When full 

 grown it appears as at 6, 

 Fig. 238. It resembles a maggot in general appearance, being white, 

 except the small mouth-parts, which are brown; is fleshy, nearly 

 cylindrical and strongly wrinkled, with three pairs of very 

 short stubby legs. It is about one-fourth an inch long and half 

 as broad. Before its final molt the larva eats a round hole in the 

 pea, leaving but a thin membrane as a covering. It then lines the 

 inside of the pea with a glue-like substance, and within this cell 

 transforms to the pupa. 



The pupa is white, showing the notches at the sides of the 

 thorax, but otherwise is not dissimilar from many weevil pupae. 

 The length of the pupal stage varies from nine to seventeen or 

 more days. In more southern latitudes a large part of the beetles 

 leave the seed in August, but in the North they all remain in the 

 seed over winter, and are planted with the seed. There is but one 

 generation a year and this species does not breed in dry peas. 



Injury. Dr. James Fletcher has stated that this pest is now 

 doing over $1,000,000 damage in Ontario alone annually, and that 



